Sikh dentist attacked with machete in Wales; assailant held guilty by court

Cardiff: A Wales court has held a man guilty of attempt to murder, as he attacked a Sikh dentist with a machete at North Wales’ Tesco Mold supermarket in January, a media report said on Friday.

Zack Davies, 26, of Chester Street in Mold, told the court that he never intended to kill Sarandev Bhambra, 24, when he launched his hammer and machete attack.

However, Mold Crown Court Judge Rhys Rowlands sent Davies to a high security hospital in Wales, where his psychiatric profile would be prepared, before he is sentenced.

“I hold the view he is an incredibly dangerous young man. If it is not going to be a hospital order, it will be the longest possible sentence,” said the judge about Davies.

Newly-qualified dentist Bhandra walked into the supermarket at lunchtime on January 14 and found himself to be the victim of a horrifying attack which left him with severe head and back wounds and a machete slash which almost severed his left hand.

According to prosecutor Sion ap Mihangel, Davies harboured a hatred for his mother’s boyfriend and the attack was actually intended at him.

To prepare for the attack, Davies packed a machete, a hammer and a knife into a rucksack.

When Davies failed to find his mother’s boyfriend, he followed Bhambra to Tesco where he launched the attack from behind with a hammer blow to Bhambra’s head, shouting “white power!”.

He then pursued the bleeding Bhambra, who fell several times as Davies slashed his skull to the bone, and gashed his back with the machete and cut the nerves and tendons of his left hand as he tried to defend himself.

Davies said that he selected Bhambra because of the colour of his skin and Asian appearance.

Just before he left his flat, Davies visited some extremely violent websites such as “Best Gore” and “All the Gore”, his computer history showed.

Davies claimed in court that he was inspired by famous British Islamic State (IS) militant Mohammed Emwazi, also known as “Jihadi John”, who has appeared in videos beheading foreign hostages, including British aid worker, David Haines. (IANS)

Indian Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu, third left, stands for the national anthem during the foundation stone-laying ceremony for the planned road corridor to the Pakistan border, at Dera Baba Nanak,. VOA

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan will lay the foundation stone Wednesday for what is dubbed as a cross-border “corridor of peace” to allow religious devotees from India’s minority Sikh community to make free visits to one of their holiest gurdwaras, or temples, on the Pakistani side after more than seven decades.

The temple, known as Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, is considered to be the first temple ever built and the final resting place of Guru Nanak, the Sikhism founder.

Indian leaders, on behalf of the Sikh community, have long been demanding Islamabad provide unrestricted access to the holy site in Kartarpur, in Pakistan’s Punjab province.

India’s and Pakistan’s independence from Britain in 1947 divided the Punjab province, where Sikhism was born.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan is seen during talks in Beijing, China. VOA

Indian Vice President Venkaiah Naidu performed the groundbreaking Monday on his side of the corridor at a ceremony just two kilometers from the Pakistani border.

The mutually agreed-to project is rare between the two nuclear-armed South Asian rivals. Historically strained ties have deteriorated in recent years and bilateral official talks remain suspended.

The fenced corridor of about five kilometers aims to connect the Kartarpur temple to the Sikh holy shrine at Dara Baba Nanak in India’s Gurdaspur district. Officials say the corridor will be in place for the 550th anniversary of Guru Nanak’s birth in November 2019.

Khan’s government has invited, among others, Indian officials and journalists for Wednesday’s groundbreaking in Kartarpur, three kilometers from the border with India. An Indian ministerial-level delegation is expected to attend the ceremony as special envoys of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A Delhi-based Sikh organization Urges UN to Support Turbans as Religious Symbol. Pixabay

“Pakistan calls this a corridor of peace. I call it the corridor of infinite possibilities of peace,” Indian Punjab provincial minister Navjot Singh Sidhu told reporters shortly after arriving in Pakistan for the ceremony. He crossed the border by foot at the Wagah crossing near the eastern Pakistan city of Lahore to attend the event at the invitation of his friend, Prime Minister Khan.

Members of the Sikh community on both sides have welcomed the construction of the cross-border corridor linking the two holy sites.

Indian pilgrims currently must seek visas to enter Pakistan and travel more than 200 kilometers to visit the Kartarpur shrine. The temple is visible on clear days from a viewing stage on the Indian side, where religious devotees gather every day to have a glimpse of it.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars, and mutual tensions often hamper pilgrims’ plans to get timely visas to visit the shrine. Two of those wars have been over the disputed Kashmir region, which remains at the center of tensions. (VOA)